Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: People are not over-egging it when they try and tell you that Polish composer Andrzej Korzynski was an exploratory artist. Words like 'mind-bending', 'cosmic', and 'immersive' are often used in the same sentence as any reference to his name, let alone musical output, which remains some of the most sought after among fans of what can only really be described as staunchly experimental psyche.

For many, The Devil Tapes is the holy grail of Korzynski. Made to score Andrzej ?u?awsk's film, The Devil, by this point the pair had already worked together on the movie soundtrack to Possession, and cracked the collaborative process. Having been asked to make music that was "totally unique, like something from another planet", the composer took his initial taped experiments and pulled the vari-speed down, then layered hallucinatory effects over the top, resulting in something that's beyond a mere accompaniment, and very much integral to the film itself.

Review: Kulku is a Berlin outfit that formed at the turn of the millennium and since then has become widely lauded for its free-form approach to sound. The collective intertwines jazz, percussion, soulful acoustic sounds and outsider rhythms that draw from artists like Moondog, Velvet Underground and Steve Reich and now they are back with five new tracks on this fresh 12"/ it offers up their signature sounds made with primarily acoustic instruments such as harmoniums, xylophones, timpani, cello and plenty more. Add in soulful sax and vocals from frontman Andreas Riska in both German and English and you have another mesmeric record from these cult favourites.

Review: A collaborative EP between 2 Australian rock giants, this limited one-sided collectors disc comprises the 19 minutes long 'Satanic Slumber Party' split into three sections. 'The Chairman's Portrait' intro is a dark, heavily distorted spoken-word piece backed by dark rumbling guitars that explodes into the head-banging electronic banger 'Midnight in Sodom'. The angry lyrics are paired with awesome melodic guitar solos and chiptune noises, before shifting into noise rock territory. 'Hoof and Horn' takes up most of the runtime at a hefty 12 minutes, in which ambient drone begets experimental sound effects that are reminiscent of the liquid bass and synths favoured by producer SOPHIE. The track evolves into a demonic lullaby that wouldn't feel out of place in an episode of American Horror Story, and fans of 2 Mello's 'Atmospheric Horror Music Vol.1' will greatly appreciate this track. The EP is all-in-all a camp experience. An Avante-Garde, quintessentially fun blend of two incredible groups.

Review: The soundtrack to a forthcoming BBC documentary 'The Show Of Shows', 'Circe' finds these two Sigur Ros members collaborating with Icelandic composer Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson and the band's live guitarist Kjartan Holm on an evocative and expansive collection of soundscapes that summon up the drama and intrigue of their companion work - a history of vaudeville, circuses and carnivals. With melancholic choral arrangements, stentorian percussive ballast and glitchy electronic experimentation playing an equal part, this is a soundtrack work with a good deal more than mere ambience to recommend it, and one fit to appeal to fans of the questing spirit of Mogwai and Radiohead as well as the main protagonists' dayjob.

Review: The second solo releases from Edward Ka-Spel to appear on the Lumberton Trading Company label offers eight spectacularly original compositions from the outsider artist. These are tracks that bore their way into the heart and mind through startlingly personal moods and meanings. The atmosphere is often tense, and, when it's not, 'surreal' is the word that springs to mind - albeit more unusual hallucination than comical experiment. 'Platform 5' might be the best example of how unnerving things can get, the low, rumbling synth bassline underpinning spoken word, distant, almost inaudible harmonic refrain and eerie chorus. 'No Show Tomorrow' asks "what if they had a war and nobody showed up' to seemingly disconnected tones, notes and noises. 'They Seek Her Here' ups the tempo with a synth-wave-breaks trip through dystopian spaces.

Review: The trio of Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto all have their own international audience and together they create a sound that is uniquely their own. They always have a live-centric focus and now unveil their third album which was recorded during a live session at Shimokitazawa ADRIFT in 2023. The album was re-edited, mixed, and mastered by O'Rourke with recording done by longtime collaborator Joe Talia. This work transcends a traditional live album and stands proud as a fully realised studio project. Embracing improvisation throughout, Kafka Ibiki redefines roles while weaving their interplay into a singular, evolving sound that is an immersive narrative overall.

Review: Having been described as something of a short-lived (ethereal) stoner trio, Kanaan rise from the ashes with their first official release, Windborne, six tracks of pure, instrumental psychedelia. Made up of members from legendary French industrial metal band Treponem Pal and associated act Dirge, the freshly hailed Norwegian group Kanaan on this debut outing successfully fuse free-jazz with post-rock and touches of metal with a mass of '70s avant garde inspirations. The cruising (Eno & krautrock referencing) "Harmonia" a highlight amidst the Sabbath-like "Act Upon The Mundane World" and its radical title-track "Windborne".

Review: No prizes for guessing the kind of sonic avenues we're invited to explore here. Less obvious is the fact Kandodo is actually Simon Price, a name many psych lovers will recognise from British heavyweights The Heads - a group that have spent the last few decades bending minds to their will, or at least sound, and opening up third ears with far reaching cosmic tones. Here you can expect similar wormholes to open, but dark matter reigns supreme. Introverted to the point of collapsing in on itself, Theendisinpsyche feels sludgy, deep, heavy and all the things that make us look down and then inside ourselves. With the B-side taken up by 22-minute long epic, 'Swim Into The Sun', you should hopefully know just how intense and inescapable things get - which should only ever be taken as a strong recommendation from us.

Review: It feels like every couple of years a new reissue of Kikagaku Moyo's magical 2013 album Forest of Lost Children comes around, but we are not moaning. This group is "a musical union between five free spirits" or in less poetic terms, band founders Go Kurosawa (on drums and vocals) and Tomo Katsurada (on guitar and vocals) plus bass by and Akira also on guitar. Their sound is as unique as any, with psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock and more all collided into one another on an album that keeps you on your toes and guessing at what might come next even within each track, let alone across the whole album. If you're a new interested party this is a great primer for what the band is all about.

Review: When it comes to creating musical soundtracks to contemporary urban decay, Gary Mundy has more experience than most. He's been releasing music as Kleistwahr since 1983 (though he did give the project a break between 1987 and 2009) and is a genuine master of creating heady, post-industrial soundscapes. 'Common Values', his 14th Kleistwahr album, is another masterclass in texture, mood and slowly shifting melody. There are moments of bittersweet, melancholic brilliance (see the immersive, reverb-laden ambience of 'Heaven Maybe Never') and pulsing, creeping minimalism (the brilliant, bleak and mournful 'Towards New Land'), but also fuzzy, guitar-laden soundscapes ('In a Blood Covered Land', 'All of Death To Lie' and the squally 'Common Values') and enveloping audio worlds subtly influenced by shoegaze ('Time To Realise').

Review: Transporting us to a waking dream of Los Angeles, two enigmatic music makers from the City of (Fallen) Angels present a truly stunning journey into hazy half-memories, afternoon fantasies, borrowed recollections and thoughts of things yet to happen. In many ways, Salt & Sugar Look The Same feels incomplete; tracks, half-tracks, movements, bits and pieces feel like our minds often work. Was that what we think it was? Did this happen? According to the official release burb, these 18 brief but beautiful compositions combine finger-plucked guitar work, the lens flare of electronica, and warped samples to create a take on the American primitivism music movement. The result is something that transcends boundaries of sound, time and place, and exists in a world of its own creation.

Review: The ominous clangs and thuds grow louder and louder, louder and louder, atmosphere of increasing tension turning into borderline panic as timbre's brooding menace threatens to erupt into snarling aggression. Suffice to say, like a good chunk of Diabel, 'Wedding Dance Macabre' is disinterested in niceties and would likely run anyone through who is looking for background music. The fact this is one of Andrzej Korzy?ski's scores for one of Andrzej ?u?awski's movies only makes that feat more phenomenal, given the role soundtracks often play in cinema.

Of course, it's not all so foreboding and intimidating. Tracks like 'Through the Door - Theodor' are in fact downright playful, tune comprising high pitched 'boing' noises, like springs recoiling in harmony, while 'Your Father Is Dead Young Lord' is a masterclass in emotionally captivating piano. Nevertheless, the point remains - these were never meant to accompany a visual piece, but instead play leading parts in the narrative of Diabel.

Review: Opening on the grinding powerhouse of 'I', Kosmik Sun present three tracks of epic, cinematic heavy rock-metal which gives a nod to the likes of Mogwai and Explosions In the Sky. Albeit here things seem to have taken more of an influence from darker places, with each part of the triptych casting an eerie spell over the listener, transporting them to psychedelic, doom-laden otherworldly places. The side project of German aficionado Eugen Kohl, best known for the Crypt Witch project, Kosmik Sun also features members of Coven Spell and Devil Leaf, which, if nothing else, should let any newbies know exactly what they're in for. Steeped in deep stoner atmosphere, not to mention exceptional, gritty musicality, this is intensity for thinking people and it never lets up.

Review: Kreidler return to Bureau B and not without good reason. Their seventh outing on the highly respected label follows suit on previous exploits, exploring some outer limits of cosmic-leaning, guitar-led, electronically augmented stuff. Tracks that feel made for the hidden dancefloors of weird basements as much as the soundtracks to avant garde science fiction. And if that's too much of a stretch, let's just say 'mesmerising' and have done with it. Comparing and contrasting the warm bleeps and filtered hooks of 'Diver', for example, with 'Tanger Telex' and its strange, smoky brass trip into downtempo smoky heaven serves as a quick example of just how broad yet coherent Twists is. As does 'Arthmetique', a strange, patient thing of rhythmic licks and spoken word, when considered next to the fuzzy, dub-tech-meets-math rock of 'Mount Mason'.